Daniel Shaver was a 26-year-old pest control worker from Granbury Texas.

On 18th January 2016, Daniel Shaver, who was staying at a La Quinta Inn & Suites hotel, on business-related matters, was shot and killed by armed police officer Philip Brailsford.

Earlier on in the evening it is believed that Daniel invited two acquaintances back to his hotel room for drinks; while in his room Daniel decided to show his friends an air rifle which he used to exterminate birds at work.

At some point during this conversation, Daniel’s air rifle had become visible from his hotel window, this prompted a passerby to notify the front desk of the hotel and as a result the police were called.

Once the armed police arrived at the hotel they ordered Shaver and his friends out of the hotel room. The police shouted several commands and orders at Shaver and his friends, telling him to cross his legs and crawl on his belly towards them. Shaver complied with each and every request the officers gave to them. Officer Philip Brailsford can be heard on the video footage telling Mr Shaver that if he failed to comply with any of his orders he would be shot.

As Shaver crawled on his belly towards the officers, he could be heard crying and begging the officers not to shoot him, at one point Shaver moves his right arm from behind his head towards his side, Office Brailsford can then be heard shouting ‘DON’T’ followed by rapid-fire shots that killed Daniel Shaver.

Those who have watched the video footage of the shooting, will be all too familiar with the sense of anger and fury at officer Brailsford’s actions. It is blatantly obvious that Daniel posed little threat to the several armed officers, especially considering he followed each and every command the officers had given to him.

Daniel appeared to be frightened, scared and confused. He didn’t appear to be of any significant threat to the officers or anyone else for that matter. While the officers claim Daniel had been drinking, the video footage shows that he still complied with orders and appeared to be coherent.

It is clear that the police force thought that officer Brailsford had acted rashly and inappropriately; as he was fired in March 2016 for what the police force cited as ‘several policy violations’. One of these violations was having his rifle dust cover engraved with “YOU’RE FUCKED”.

That same month Philip Brailsford was arrested, charged and prosecuted for the second-degree murder of Daniel Shaver.

The case finally came to trial on October 23rd 2017. Unfortunately, the judge ordered the damning video footage as prejudicial, ordering its exclusion from the case, meaning the jury never got to see the damning evidence that the majority of has seen with our own two eyes. All the jury had to go on, was the witness testimony of the other witnesses at the time, which the majority happened to be Mr Brailsford’s colleagues.

On 7th December 2017, after a 6-week trial, the jury decided to acquit Mr Brailsford on all charges.

Daniel’s loved ones have now been deprived of justice, the video footage spoke a thousand words and it was blatantly obvious to those who witnessed the video footage that Daniel Shaver had been executed in cold blood by PC Philip Brailsford.

Now Mr Brailsford gets to live out his life without a care in the world for what he has done.

The judge, in this case, should hang his head in shame, it’s with little doubt that he knew how damning that evidence was and it’s with little doubt that he knew that his decision to refuse the bodycam footage to be shown to the jury, would highly increase the chances of Mr Brailsford escaping justice.

2 Comments

Anyone who are in the same situation will freak out how the police yell as if you did a horrible crime when in fact you’re just an ordinary person! This is completely insane and horrible. The man begs them not to shoot, the video shows how scared he is.

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